


Literary Divination- featuring the magic of words

by stardustandreams



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Books, Gen, Power of Words, Prose Poem, Reflection, Strength
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 00:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3874969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustandreams/pseuds/stardustandreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armin Arlert turns to books to escape harsh reality. But words serve as more than just mere escapism for him- they are the strength that he needs to survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Literary Divination- featuring the magic of words

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bartolomeo Cristofori](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Bartolomeo+Cristofori).



Armin Arlert had been called a heretic, a renegade, a loser, an outcast. He’d been pushed, and kicked, punched and hit. He’d never felt like he’d belonged. 

From words he found solace, comfort and peace. He found excitement, adventure, a place where he belonged. Bound between leather covers, he turned pages- paper worlds- that had captured his heart; ink smudges that he believed in entirely. Through crisp pages that rustled in the dead of the night, when all else was still, Armin visited the world outside. Armin fought and he sang, and he danced and he searched- for sparkling gems and hordes of gold. He visited fields of wheat that spread for miles and miles, he walked, barefoot, his feet sinking into the cool, damp soil of misty orchards in the dusky evening. He reached up, on his tiptoes, for ripe fruit, bursting with flavour, tangy sweetness in every bite. Armin sat by sparkling lakes, dipped his toes in the fresh cool water. He wiggled his toes, splashed around. He swam.

Armin interacted with the animals of the world. He approached them cautiously, curiously, fingers fanned out, hands trembling, palms facing outward, arms outstretched. They snarled and they purred, they squawked and they flapped, they bounced and they rolled and they slithered. Amidst plains of trees and dirt, surrounded by nature untouched by man for centuries, in the heart of the animal kingdom, in the chaos of the natural world, Armin ran. He leaped and he jumped, he bounded and he spun and he hooted in joy.

He cried.

Through his books, Armin found power. And Armin dreamed.

He dreamed of a world too vast for him to explore. He dreamed of dazzling blue bodies oceans, and fiery red seas. He dreamed of sand that stretched as far as he could see. He imagined a world that he could conquer.

Eren was a caged bird, and his anthem was anger. He sang a beautiful song of fury, fire that burned as bright and hot as the fire bodies they yearned to see. Human beings have evolved so, that they cannot be contained. And Armin understood that. He understood Eren’s restlessness, his impatience, his frustration. He could feel his ire. Together they imagined a world beyond their own. Together they imagined, they dreamed. But Eren’s heart cried for freedom. Armin’s craved knowledge.

Armin wanted to feel, to hear, to see; but most of all, Armin wanted to understand. How could anyone bear living without knowing what was around them? What kind of an existence was that? He wanted to experience, to explore. He wanted to know what it meant to be human. 

Armin was cursed with intelligence too advanced for his simple town. He was cursed with the burden of knowing what they were missing out on. He was deprived of the bliss one can only achieve through simple ignorance. 

Sometimes, as he was slammed against a wall, when he knew that the words that bubbled beneath his chest, his righteous fury that would have no effect on his perpetrators swelled up inside of him, he found himself wishing that he could be freed of this knowledge, freed of his impervious desires.

Sometimes as a fist collided against his cheek, and his head exploded in pain, he wondered if, this ridiculous concupiscence would ebb away with the throb of his face, and his heart.

But his wanderlust never wavered.

And with every hit he endured, with every sting and affliction, with every throb of his head and his heart, the fire within him grew stronger. Higher. 

He would fight. For their freedom, for their knowledge, for the world beyond.

He cursed his inability, he cursed his frail body. but even as he detested himself, he worked. He pushed himself and he tried, oh lord he tried his best. He fought, with every fiber of his being. He fought, and he felt alive.

Because even if he never lived to see the world outside, he was working towards a cause he believed him. The fire of passion that burned within him is what made him human; made him feel alive.

And sometimes, Armin thought, when the terror of pain and loss and death subsided for the night, that even if he perished in this fight for humanity’s freedom, he’d be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Armin is the most precious gem in the world and he doesn't deserve even the tiniest smidgen of pain. Also, today's the birthday of the inventor of the piano so I guess this is in honour of the man to whom I owe my heart, soul and deepest gratitude. I hope this crappy fanfiction dedication will suffice. //slinks back to where I came from


End file.
